19.10.2011 October 19, 2011 ANKARA, Kurdish rebels killed 26 Turkish soldiers and injured 16 Wednesday in simultaneous attacks by Kurdish PKK rebels in southeast Turkey, marking one of the deadliest days for the army in its fight against the separatists since 1984. The attacks by Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) rebels on Turkish troops occurred in eight locations in Cukurca and Yuksekova in Hakkari province near the Iraqi border, during the night from Tuesday to Wednesday, local security sources said. The toll is the heaviest for the army since 1993, when the PKK killed 33 unarmed soldiers in Bingol province, in southeast Turkey. Turkish soldiers in the Kurdish region of Turkey. It could raise as at least one of the injured soldiers sustained life-threatening wounds, local health officials said. Ankara launched a response to the attacks on the ground and in the air. Several hundred Turkish soldiers have crossed into Iraqi Kurdistan region to hunt down PKK rebels,www.ekurd.net Kurdish news agency Firatnews said. "Turkish soldiers from two separate points in Cukurca town crossed into south Kurdistan to follow (rebels)," said Firat news agency, which is known as a mouthpiece of the PKK. "Turkish ground forces are attempting to cross the Iraqi border at Jeli, in the Hakkari region" of southeast Turkey, Dozdar Hammo, a PKK spokesman, told AFP. Turkish air force planes also bombed Kurdish rebel bases in Iraqi Kurdistan in retaliation for the attacks, security sources said. The air raids targeted Qandil region, the main rear base of the PKK, they added. Clashes between the PKK and the army have escalated since summer. Turkish Chief of General Staff General Necdet Özel and force commanders travelled to Hakkari after the news of the soldiers' deaths. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who was scheduled to leave the country on Wednesday for an official visit to Kazakhstan, cancelled his trip. Turkey was shelling northern Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region on Tuesday, a Kurdish rebel spokesman said, in the first report of Turkish bombardment in the area in more than two weeks. Since August 17, Turkish jets repeatedly carried out air strikes against the Kurdish PKK separatist group's bases in Iraqi Kurdistan region, under justification of chasing elements of the anti-Ankara PKK, forcing large numbers of Kurdish citizens of those areas to desert their home villages, including an air raid that killed 7 Kurdish civilians in a village north of Kurdistans Sulaimaniyah city on August 21st. Since it was established in 1984, the PKK has been fighting the Turkish state, which still denies the constitutional existence of Kurds, to establish a Kurdish state in the south east of the country, sparking a conflict that has claimed some 45,000 lives. But now its aim is the creation an autonomous Kurdish region and more cultural rights for ethnic Kurds who constitute the greatest minority in Turkey, numbering more than 20 million. A large Turkey's Kurdish community openly sympathise with the Kurdish PKK rebels. PKK's demands included releasing PKK detainees, lifting the ban on education in Kurdish, paving the way for an autonomous democrat Kurdish system within Turkey, reducing pressure on the detained PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan, stopping military action against the Kurdish party and recomposing the Turkish constitution. Turkey refuses to recognize its Kurdish population as a distinct minority. It has allowed some cultural rights such as limited broadcasts in the Kurdish language and private Kurdish language courses with the prodding of the European Union, but Kurdish politicians say the measures fall short of their expectations. http://www.aaj.tv/2011/10/26-turkish-soldiers-killed-in-clash-with-pkk-source/
yes , Erdogan calls on Palestinians their right for statehood and yet he is banning the same right from 15-20 million kurds in N.kurdistan ..... just double standards ..... i just hope when they speak of "retaliation" its not civilians .
